Settling in for the Summer

Breakfast with the Birds

Hard to believe it — at least for us — that we've been in Salem for almost two weeks. Since my last post almost a month ago, we've spent 15  days traveling up from the River Dunes Marina in Pamlico, NC with only one layover day in Portsmouth, VA. We used up our planned lay days waiting for our engine repairs there, and faced with a deteriorating forecast for winds and waves, we struck out with intentions of doing some long days in order to arrive in Salem a few days before an old friend arrived from Tokyo to stay with us through the MIT Sloan School Reunion weekend. On the morning we left North Carolina, we were treated to these small and lovely birds sitting on our lifelines as we opened the salon curtains and began our preparations to get underway.

Massive Crane Delivery

Our first two days out were through several very large and shallow bodies of water: the Alligator River, the Pamlico, Currituck and Albemarle Sounds, all prone to choppy, nasty conditions when high winds and currents are in opposing directions. Our tactic was to get underway at first light and make as much progress as possible before the winds built up during the day, and for the most part, we were comfortable and able to read and knit underway. We heaved a sigh of relief when we reached the locks at Great Bridge, VA, but realized that we still had about 750 miles to go.

One of our favorite days is transiting Norfolk Harbor, which brings back memories as both of us lived in that area long ago, and always has lots of interesting things to see-- particularly for the captain, who really gets a kick out of seeing all the naval vessels docked there. On this particularly gray morning, we watched an immense crane being delivered by a team of three tugs. If you look at the blue cranes on shore, which are very tall and can be seen from far away, you get an idea of just how big this piece of equipment is — huge!

Carry On at Portsmouth Free Dock

As the next good stopping place was farther than we felt like going, we decided to check out the two free docks in Portsmouth, just across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk, which we had read were great places for a layover-- and we were ready for a break. We found space at the second dock just as it began to rain and were helped with our lines by one of two  small Canadian power cats on either side of us. We were also ready for some company and invited both couples, one from Vancouver, the other from Ontario, over for drinks, planning to go out for dinner after they left. But as these things go, we all were having fun, wine was flowing and by the time they left, we were no longer very hungry or very excited about venturing out on such a drizzly night. So we stayed in, which turned out to be a very good decision. As we settled down for the night, we looked outside and discovered that at high tide, our free dock was 6 inches under water! 

We had a sunny morning the next day, good for an exploration of the historic homes near our dock, had lunch out and a catchup afternoon with good internet service, not always a given in the areas we had just covered. Then the next two days, back on plan, up through Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay to Solomons, MD, our usual stopover to rendezvous with Scotty, our boat guru. No Scotty, who was still in Florida this season, but a whirlwind afternoon to pick up the mail and packages waiting for us and a power grocery shopping trip in the ancient Mercedes courtesy car provided by the marina. In the hour limit for usage, we managed to reprovision for the next 11 days, including travel time!

Back on track the next day, up the Chesapeake to Still Pond. Up early again, through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, with an early stop so as not to fight adverse currents through the Delaware Bay. Then up very early, through the Bay, through the Delaware- Cape May Canal, through Cape May and all the way to Atlantic City. A long day, ending with a truly nasty stretch of seas before turning in to the relative calm of the anchorage off the bright casino lights. 

Freedom Tower and Lower Manhattan

By this point, the choice we faced was waiting for a week in Atlantic City for seas to calm down, or continuing to move despite a forecast of 3-5 ft seas. We opted for the later and were rewarded with a reasonable day of no more than 1 ft seas, arriving at our anchorage in the shelter of Coney Island on a hot summery feeling evening. The next day through New York harbor is always exhilarating, and our Memorial Day transit coincided with the end of Fleet Week and a visit by the tall ships. We've enjoyed watching the progress of the construction of the Freedom Tower, which now looks, at least from the outside, near completion.

Tall Ships at Fleet Week

We had planned to spend two nights in Port Washington on Long Island Sound, but opted to stay only one and continue up the Sound the next day to Duck Island Roads, a Connecticut anchorage. With an early start from Duck Island, we stopped early the next day, taking a mooring at a boatyard in Jamestown found for us by our old and dear friends, who took us out for a tour of their recently purchased Grand Banks and then for dinner. A welcome respite!

Almost home, just two long days to go, but motivated by the increasingly dire forecasts for high seas even near the coast. We felt fortunate to travel through Narraganset Bay and Buzzards Bay in calm conditions and opted to lengthen our day to make it all the way to Plymouth, by which time we were feeling gentle swells. Plymouth Harbor is a very long way in and we consciously decided not to seek better shelter than behind a small stretch of land extending out from the harbor. We still don't regret the decision, but it became increasingly obvious toward early morning that the sea conditions were not getting better. At 4:45 am, neither of us sleeping, we roused ourselves and were underway, even hauling 125 ft of chain, in less than 20 minutes-- a record for us, although we are very adept at a half hour departure straight out of bed!

It was not a pleasant morning. The seas were easily five feet, on our starboard quarter. Nasty, but all three of us, including Bubba, endured, realizing that we would be on the dock in Salem by noon. The nastiness lasted until an hour out from the dock when we reached some sheltering from Cape Ann and we were able to regroup, get dock lines ready and pull in the paravanes in relative calm. It was a beautiful sunny day here, and despite being exhausted, we were very happy to finally make our destination. We'll be here for the summer, where we can catch up with friends, look for a place to live on land, and make the boat more available for showing. We will miss Maine, but it's also really good to just settle in here for a while.